About Books: Chris Spielman kicks off local One Book, One Community

This year’s One Book, One Community literacy effort will begin Tuesday with a program featuring former Washington High School and Ohio State University football star Chris Spielman.

Gary Brown

This year’s One Book, One Community literacy effort will begin Tuesday with a program featuring former Washington High School and Ohio State University football star Chris Spielman, the 2012 reading program’s highlighted author.

The focus of One Book, One Community, planned and promoted by the Mayor’s Literacy Commission, is the memoir “That’s Why I’m Here: The Chris and Stefanie Spielman Story,” which Spielman wrote with Bruce Hooley.

“Kicking Off With Chris Spielman” will be 7 p.m. Tuesday, with a book signing from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m., at the auditorium in Malone University’s Johnson Center for Worship and the Fine Arts at 2600 Cleveland Ave. NW, Canton. Malone’s publicity material for the event calls Spielman’s story “a personal account of the couple’s courageous journey as they navigated Stefanie’s battle with breast cancer.”

The public event, at which Spielman will speak about the 11-year family struggle that preceded his wife’s death in 2009, is free.

Wendell Horn, a member of the Mayor’s Literacy Commission and the One Book, One Community planning committee, said that NFL Films has made arrangements to film part of the kickoff event.

“They’re doing a documentary on Chris Spielman and this will be the final place that they will be filming,” said Horn, who noted that the documentary is scheduled to air on the NFL Network Oct. 31.

LOCAL RECOLLECTIONS

The events surrounding the Spielmans’ battle against Stefanie’s breast cancer took place in Columbus and in cities where Spielman played as a Pro Bowl linebacker in the NFL.

But another of the programs on the One Book, One Community calendar takes a local view of the former Washington High School football star, whose wife was from Jackson Township.

A guest panel of men who coached or played with Spielman during his high school years in Massillon will discuss the book at an event at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Lions Lincoln Theater at 156 Lincoln Way E in Massillon.

Appearing at the event will be Mike Currence, Spielman’s coach, and teammates Brian DeWitz and Tim Sampsel. All participants will have read the book and “will start the discussion with their own memories of football and other life experiences related to the book,” according to promotional material put out by the library.

The event was planned with the assistance of Massillon Board of Education members Mike Slater and Mary Strukel, as well as Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club Vice President Bill Brown.

The free event — donations will be accepted for the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research — is listed on the One Book, One Community calendar as a book discussion. It was moved from Massillon Public Library to the Lions Lincoln Theater when the estimated attendance grew large.

“I was talking about it at a booster club meeting and so many people were saying that they were going to be there that I thought, ‘We need to change this,’ ” said Sherie Brown, library director. “But we’re not changing the event. We want to make sure it stays focused on the book.”

The book is inspirational, notes library publicity material, and not only relates to football, but also to “faith and family and fortitude,” which “lift others up in times of adversity.”

“It has something to say to any reader,” said the library material, “about how we use our time, talents, experiences and in Spielman’s case, celebrity, to make a difference in the world.”